Our Targeted Academic Sponsorship Programme pairs students and early career professionals with industry, universities and NGOs to respond to the most pressing and relevant issues facing the sector. Strong communication surrounding sustainability is essential to enabling consumers to make informed and responsible choices. As part of this programme, the Company has been able to support The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), who accredit sustainable practice in fisheries across the globe, in recruiting a Social Media and Communications intern, to help share this important information. Here, Abigail Spink talks through some of her achievements during her time at the MSC and how this experience will help her build a career in fisheries communications.
Joining the MSC UK & Ireland team as Social Media and Communications Intern has opened my eyes to the exciting and hugely important world of sustainable fishing. I’ve learnt how marketing and communications can be used strategically to encourage people to consume responsibly sourced seafood, which really makes a difference to the health of our oceans.
Throughout my time at the MSC, I have supported across the MarComms team on both key campaigns and day-to-day activity. This has included creating social media content for our main channels, providing website updates (with a particular focus on updating our fisheries spotlight and blog pages), writing press releases, assisting on photoshoots, and much more.
One of the highlights for me was supporting on our New Year Ocean Cookbook campaign, where we developed a digital cookbook filled with 12 sustainable recipes featuring the fishers who had caught each of the species involved. This included Andrew Bremner from the SFSAG Scottish haddock fishery in Scotland, who supplied the fish for Mitch Tonks’ haddock recipe. It was great to be part of such a successful and thought-provoking campaign, and even better to see my first press release land in a fishing trade magazine and our social media followers interact positively with each of the recipes we promoted across our channels (I’d highly recommend the anchovy pesto pasta!)
Before beginning the internship programme with the MSC, I knew I wanted to put my writing and creativity skills to use in a team that is passionate about the ocean environment and enacting positive change, and I’ve definitely been able to do so, especially with the support of fantastic colleagues and the sponsorship from the Fishmongers’ Company. I feel confident that my time at the MSC has given me the skills needed to kickstart a career in comms, particularly within the marine sector, and I’m excited for what the future holds!
© The Fishmongers’ Company 2024
